AAC upcoming TV deal will have huge ramifications for UConn, league

ESPN is trying to low ball the AAC or there would be a deal by now. The conference top 4 or 5 teams are trending up and looking at the transfers and new coaches to these schools, 2019 looks to be an exciting one for the AAC.

I personally believe ESPN wouldn’t mind the top AAC teams move to a P5. I think they believe the bottom half is not worth 13M a team. I say this because everytime one of these top AAC teams play a good P5 team, the viewership is huge especially from that AAC team’s local metropolitan tv market. AAC vs any G5 doesn’t garner that type of viewership but good AAC vs good P5 does.

Of course the networks are not going to encourage conference expansion now, so we have to wait until 3 or 4 years but until then, AAC teams will have to settle for about $4M.

I can’t imagine ESPN paying multiples of what they already pay just because the rights expire. They will let us walk. We may get a deal at $6M per year/school, but we aren’t gonna get paid for what is basically a dead-end conference. Fan perceptions will not change to the degree needed to make P5 money. Just. Won’t. Happen.

Why would they mind a couple of schools moving to P5 and having to pay them four times what they have to pay them right now?!? That makes total business sense.

Did you read my post? Larger viewership which means more money to the network. Most of the AAC teams are in large tv markets but nothing will be done until P5 contracts are renegotiated starts in 2 or 3 years.

Houstonians don’t care about UT vs Baylor but UT vs UH would get a huge viewership. TAM vs Tech bores me but TAM vs UH is a “can’t wait to see game” especially with Jimbo there. He remembers what happened the last time he played Houston.

I agree that the AAC will not make good money because of the G5 stigma and the bottom feeders.

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Not sure how true this is. Can UH pull in the audience repeatedly.

Viewership was very good when we played OU and FSU. We will see what the numbers are when we play OU and Wazzu this year.

It isn’t just the rights fees. The conference needs a partner that is willing to put some promotion behind the deal. An investment that will help grow the conference and make it more valuable from the advertising and subscriber standpoint.

For instance, a conference preview special before football and basketball season. This might be good content for their ESPN+ but would be better on broadcast. Making sure the games are promoted, for instance in the past we have had a prime Thursday night game with zero promotion online, not even on the ESPN CFB twitter, it was like they didn’t want people to watch or like they didn’t know they had scheduled a game on that night. I know people will watch ESPN just because it is ESPN but that is the wrong attitude when you should want to increase the network bottom line.

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Yep - and they have killed the goose that laid the golden egg, as far as I am concerned. I hardly ever watch ANYTHING live on TV anymore because of the advertising. My DVR is my friend!

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Everyone’s ratings go up when playing Oklahoma for Alabama. How would we do playing the P5 equivalent of Connecticut, Memphis, or two lane. That’s where the value lies.

Those Power teams dont rate well playing those schools either…

No, our viewership will not be as great when we play P5 bottom feeders than playing OU or Bama but we have a large TV market. This means our viewership would be decent and a lot better as a P5 especially if we are winning.

No doubt it was. But can it be maintained? Does Uh have the fan base that’ll continue to pull the large audiences, particularly once the novelty of playing P5 programs wears off and if UH is not winning regularly?

Better than Vanderbilt vs. Wake Forest

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You sir are part of the solution.

I was a student when the rec center was built in 2003? 04? There was a $75 charge added to my bill for its construction for 2 semesters before that. The last year i was in school i used that building a little, but i really appreciated it and honestly, try finding a gym with annual membership cheaper than that.
Now consider current students paying $50 a semester to subsidize our programs, thats a freaking joke. That is nothing. We can be patient.
I’ve always thought our great school should take whatever offer from a good conf immediately; but now i really think we should be patient. Let pac12 offer, Play ACC off that. I think pac should be last case scenario. Bring it on, coogboog.

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2003, we both Graduated that year. I used it at times, but I used the garrison more because the Rec was on tge opposite end of Campus. I got somwhat some value out of it, but not as much as I could. Yeah, the $75 was true…

I don’t think people fully understand how critically important it is to be in a P5. If Alston v NCAA goes the way of the players, conferences will individually have to set their own player compensation rates. In other words the SEC and B1G could potentially set a rate that’s higher than what the other conferences (including other P5 can afford).

In the Big 12, UT and OU maybe able to match SEC rates, but it won’t matter as the conference will have to agree on a rate. Good luck getting ISU and Tech etc agreeing to a high enough rate.

The G5 would be really screwed.

Interesting times for sure. Expect serious conference realignment if NCAA loses the case after appeals.